In chimpanzees matrilines are well known, as for example the matriline of Flo at
Gombe (Goodall 1968), but because many if not all females emigrate at puberty into
communities where they may not have kin,^40 the strongest bonds after puberty exist
between mothers and their sons rather than mothers and their daughters. Before
puberty sons and daughters alike are very close to their mothers. For the first five
years of life they are almost always found together and in the very early years infants
are never far from their mothers and are carried around by them, at first below their
belly and later riding on their back. During infancy the offspring learns what to eat
from its mother.
Assersohn (2000) found that infants frequently solicited food from their mothers who
shared it with them. Of the food items fed on by mothers 52% was solicited by infants
and shared with them. Mothers rarely gave food to infants actively; the initiative came
from the infant. This process of mother–infant food-sharing peaked in the second year
of the infant’s life. In the first year of the infant’s life the food had mostly already been
chewed by the mother and the infant obtained it in the form of part of a food wadge from
the mother’s mouth or hand; later on infants obtained food independently. Begging for
food was characteristic of older, not younger infants. A large proportion, 35%, of food
obtained by infants in their first year came via the mother.
The above details show that feeding, one of the very basic and most important
activities for any species, is learnt in the context of maternal kinship. Likewise, mater-
nal kinship is the context in which infants learn about most other aspects of life, and
begin their social development. By contrast, paternal kinship scarcely exists as a force
in infant development. Males play with infants and are tolerant of them at Budongo. As
related elsewhere in this book, the birth of Katia to Kewaya, observed by Zephyr
Kiwede, was followed a few days later by the presence of adult males in the tree with
the mother and her new infant in a wholly tolerant situation. Infanticide by within-
community males seems not to cause fear among resident mothers at Sonso and has only
been seen when males consider the infant to have been sired outside their community.
The within-community infanticide by the resident females Passion and Pom recorded at
Gombe (Goodall 1986) is something we have not encountered to date at Sonso.
Bennett (1996) made a study of kinship among the Sonso chimpanzees. In her words
‘Males should perhaps be regarded as generalized fathers... They do not show much
paternal care but are usually extremely tolerant of youngsters. Small infants are usually
permitted to climb over adult males who are resting, to sit close beside them as they
feed, and even to share their food.’ She also notes that males are remarkably tolerant of
youngsters who interfere during mating.
As Bennett points out, males have a protective role in relation to the entire community.
They are not ‘collective fathers’ in that they compete to achieve reproductive success
(see Chapter 6) and higher ranking males are most successful at siring offspring
Kinship 101(^40) At Taï and Mahale, for example, almost all females emigrate at puberty; at Gombe in contrast daughters
of high ranking mothers tend to remain in their natal community and have high rank there, as happens in
macaques.